Kate, the Princess of Wales, said Friday she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. Her condition was disclosed in a video message recorded on Wednesday and broadcast Friday, coming after weeks of speculation on social media about her whereabouts and health since she was hospitalized in January for unspecified abdominal surgery. Kate asked for “time, space and privacy” while she is treated for an unspecified type of cancer, which was discovered after her surgery. “I am well,” she said. “I am getting stronger every day by focusing on the things that will help me heal.” Kate, 42, hadn’t been seen publicly since Christmas until video surfaced this week of her with her husband, Prince William, heir to the throne, walking from a farm shop near their Windsor home. Kensington Palace had given little detail about Kate’s condition beyond saying it wasn’t cancer-related, the surgery was successful and recuperation would keep the princess away from public duties until April. Kate said it had been thought that her condition was non-cancerous until tests revealed the diagnosis. “This of course came as a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family,” she said. The news is another stunning development for the royal family since the announcement last month that King Charles III was being treated for an unspecified type of cancer that was caught while undergoing a procedure for a benign enlarged prostate. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement that Kate “has shown tremendous bravery.” He added: “In recent weeks she has been subjected to intense scrutiny and has been unfairly treated by certain sections of the media around the world and on social media.” Charles, 75, has withdrawn from public duties while he has cancer treatment, though he’s appeared frequently in photos carrying on meetings with government officials and dignitaries and was even seen going to church. Kate, on the other hand, had been out of view, leading to weeks of speculation and gossip. Attempts to put rumors to bed by releasing a photo of her on Mother’s Day in the U.K. surrounded by her three smiling children backfired when The Associated Press and other news agencies retracted the image because it had been manipulated. Kate issued a statement the next day acknowledging she liked to “experiment with editing” and apologizing for “any confusion” the photo had caused. But that did little to quell the speculation. Even the footage published by The Sun and TMZ that appeared to show Kate and William shopping sparked a new flurry of rumor-mongering, with some armchair sleuths refusing to believe the video showed Kate at all. Earlier this week, a British privacy watchdog said it was investigating a report that staff at the private London hospital where she was treated tried to snoop on her medical records while she was a patient for abdominal surgery. The former Kate Middleton, who married William in a fairy-tale wedding in 2011, has boosted the popularity and appeal of the British monarchy worldwide more than any royal since Princess Diana. The princess is the oldest of three children brought up in a well-to-do neighborhood in Berkshire, west of London. The Middletons have no aristocratic background, and the British press often referred to Kate as a “commoner” marrying into royalty. Kate attended the private girls’ school Marlborough College and then University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where she met William around 2001. Friends and housemates at first, their relationship came to be in the public eye when they were pictured together on a skiing holiday in Switzerland in 2004. Kate graduated in 2005 with a degree in art history and a budding relationship with the prince.

Kate, the Princess of Wales, has apologized for “confusion” caused by her editing of a family photo released by the palace. In a post on social media, Kate said that “like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.” List of winners at the 2024 Oscars “I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused,” the post said. The Associated Press and other news agencies withdrew the photo of Kate and children George, Charlotte and Louis, which was issued by Kensington Palace on Sunday to mark Mother’s Day in Britain. It appeared to have been manipulated, in violation of AP photo guidelines. The palace said the photo was taken by Prince William. ‘Oppenheimer’ set to win big at the Oscars It was the first official photo of Kate since her abdominal surgery nearly two months ago, and followed weeks of speculation about her whereabouts. Designed to quell speculation, it has sparked even more conjecture.

The first official photo of Kate, the Princess of Wales, since she underwent abdominal surgery nearly two months ago, was pulled from circulation by The Associated Press and several other news organizations because the image appeared to have been manipulated. Kensington Palace had issued the image Sunday as speculation swirled on social media about the whereabouts of the oft-photographed princess who hadn’t been seen in public since December. But efforts to tamp down rumors and supposition may have backfired after royal observers noticed inconsistencies in the photo's details. While there was no suggestion the image was fake, AP pulled the photograph from circulation because it did not meet its photo standards. Kensington Palace declined to comment. WHAT HAPPENED?The photo appeared on social media channels for the Prince and Princess of Wales at 9 a.m. along with a message from Kate wishing everyone a happy Mothers' Day, which was celebrated Sunday in the United Kingdom. The release of the photo followed weeks of gossip on social media about what had happened to Kate since she left a hospital Jan. 29 after a nearly two-week stay following planned surgery. She hadn’t been seen publicly since Christmas Day. Aramco announces $121 billion profit for 2023, down from 2022 record The photo showed a healthy looking Kate seated in a chair surrounded by her smiling three children. It was credited to her husband, Prince William, heir to the throne, and was said to have been taken earlier in the week in Windsor. “Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months,” she said. The story quickly became a top news story in Britain and the photo had almost 50 million views on the X social media platform by the end of the day. But close study of the image revealed inconsistencies that suggested it had been altered, for instance in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand with the sleeve of her sweater. By early evening, AP and other news agencies, including Getty, Reuters and AFP, decided to remove the image after examining it more closely. WHY DID THE AP ‘KILL’ THE IMAGE?AP’s editorial standards state that images must be accurate. AP does not use altered or digitally manipulated images. AP’s news values and principles explain that minor photo editing, including cropping and toning and color adjustments, are acceptable when necessary for clear and accurate reproduction and should maintain the authentic nature of the photograph. Changes in density, contrast, color and saturation levels that substantially alter the original scene are not acceptable. Backgrounds should not be digitally blurred or eliminated by burning down or by aggressive toning. The removal of “red eye” from photographs is not permissible. Gunmen kidnap 300 students in northwest Nigeria When AP determined the photo appeared to have been manipulated, it issued what is known as a “photo kill,” an industry term that retracted the image and instructed clients to remove the photo from their systems. “At closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image,” the AP said in its advisory. “No replacement photo will be sent.”

Kensington Palace says Britain's Prince William has pulled out of attending a memorial service for his godfather, the late King Constantine of Greece, because of a personal matter. The palace declined to elaborate on Tuesday but said his wife, the Princess of Wales, who is recovering from abdominal surgery, continues to do well. It said William called the Greek royal family, which is attending the memorial service in St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, to let them know he was unable to attend. Constantine II of Greece died in January of last year at the age of 82. King Charles III, who is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer, also will not attend the service for his cousin. The monarch has canceled all his public engagements while he receives treatment.

British Prince Harry has described in his new book how his older brother, Prince William, physically “attacked” him during a dispute in 2019, according to The Guardian. The event is described in Prince Harry’s forthcoming memoir “Spare”, which is scheduled to be published on Tuesday amid a persistent dispute within the British royal family, claims the report. The Guardian said that Prince William reportedly tackled Prince Harry, 38, to the ground after calling his wife Meghan Markle “difficult, rude and abrasive” during an argument in the kitchen of their London residence. Read more: Prince Harry's memoir ‘Spare’ to narrate journey from ‘trauma to healing’ The report quotes Harry’s book: “He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace and he knocked me to the floor. I landed on the dog’s bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me.” Then, Prince Harry asked his brother to go. According to the British news outlet, William “looked regretful and apologised,” Harry remembered. In the conversation between the two princes, which was taken from the book, the newspaper described Prince William as saying, “You don’t need to tell Meg about this.” Read more: Prince Harry: Split from royal life 'unbelievably tough' Harry was quoted: “You mean that you attacked me?” To which William apparently responded: “I didn’t attack you, Harold.” The latest information on the troubled relationship between the brothers comes as their father King Charles gets ready for his coronation in May after the passing of his mother Queen Elizabeth II in September at the age of 96. In a Netflix docuseries exploring the causes of their surprising departure for North America in 2020, Prince Harry and Markle spoke out about their experiences as members of the British royal family in December. Read More: Harry and Meghan slam British tabloids in new Netflix series They laid most of the blame for their misery in it on tabloid harassment and racist media headlines, some of which they claim the family was responsible for. The two are now unpopular in Britain as a result of their relocation to Markle’s home state of California. In a televised interview with ITV in the United Kingdom and CBS in the United States, out this week, in advance of the publication of the book, Prince Harry stated that he wanted “a family, not an institution.” Read More: Royals tour US green tech incubator, meet at-risk youth

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, stick to a familiar script in a new Netflix series that chronicles the couple’s estrangement from the royal family, chastising Britain’s media and the societal racism they believe has fueled coverage of their relationship. The first three episodes of “Harry and Meghan,” released Thursday, dissect the symbiotic relationship between tabloid newspapers a nd the royal family and examine the history of racism across the British Empire, and how it persists. The storytelling relies on interviews with the couple, their friends, and experts on race and the media. The series does not include dissenting voices, and there is no response from any of the media organizations mentioned. “In this family sometimes, you know, you’re part of the problem rather than part of the solution,’’ Harry says in one of the episodes. “There is a huge level of unconscious bias. The thing with unconscious bias is that it is actually no one’s fault. But once it has been pointed out, or identified within yourself, you then need to make it right.” The media’s treatment of Meghan — and what the couple felt was a lack of sympathy from royal institutions about the coverage — were at the heart of their complaints when they walked away from royal life almost three years ago and moved to Southern California. Lucrative contracts with Netflix and Spotify have helped bankroll their new life in the wealthy enclave of Montecito. Promoted with two dramatically edited trailers that hinted at a “war against Meghan,” the Netflix show is the couple’s lat est effort to tell their stor y after a series of interviews with U.S. media organizations, most notably a two-hour sit down in 2021 with Oprah Winfrey. Read more: Royals tour US green tech incubator, meet at-risk youth The first three episodes break little new ground on royal intrigue, leading one British-based analyst to conclude that the main audience Harry and Meghan are trying to reach is in the United States. The series is an effort by Harry and Meghan to cement their place in American society, where fame and riches await, says David Haigh, chief executive of Brand Finance, which has analyzed the monarchy’s value to the UK economy. “They are trying to become the next Kardashian family. And they are using the fame and notoriety of the monarchy as their stepping stone to get there,” he said. “No one would take the remotest bit of interest in either of them if they weren’t strongly associated with the UK monarchy.” The series comes at a crucial moment for the monarchy. King Charles III is trying to show that the institution still has a role to play after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, whose personal popularity dampened criticism of the crown during her 70-year reign. Charles is making the case that the House of Windsor can help unite an increasingly diverse nation by using the early days of his reign to meet with many of the ethnic groups and faiths that make up modern Britain. Harry’s 2018 marriage to the former Meghan Markle, a biracial American actress, was once seen as a public relations coup for the royal family, boosting the monarchy’s effort to move into the 21st century by making it more representative of a multicultural nation. But the fairy tale, which began with a star-studded ceremony at Windsor Castle, soon soured amid British media reports that Meghan was self-centered and bullied her staff. The new series seeks to rebut that narrative in the three hour-long episodes released Thursday. Three more are due on Dec. 15. It opens with video diaries recorded by Meghan and Harry — apparently on their phones — in March 2020, amid the couple’s acrimonious split from the royal family. It’s “my duty to uncover the exploitation and bribery” that happens in British media, Harry says in one entry. “No one knows the full truth,” he adds. “We know the full truth.” The couple then tell the story of their courtship and the initial enthusiasm that greeted the relationship. But the tone shifts as Harry recounts the intense media scrutiny faced by Meghan, reminding him of the way his mother, Princess Diana, was treated before she died in a car crash while being trailed by photographers. “To see another woman in my life who I loved go through this feeding frenzy – that’s hard,” Harry says. Read more: Duchess of Sussex gets goofy on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show “It is basically the hunter versus the prey.” Harry and the series' other narrators say the palace is partly to blame for this treatment because it has granted privileged access to six newspapers that feel they are entitled to learn intimate details about members of the royal family since British taxpayers fund their lives. Harry and Meghan said they initially tried to follow palace advice to remain silent about the press coverage as other members of the royal family said it was a rite of passage. But the couple said they felt compelled to tell their story because there was something different about the way Meghan was treated. “The difference here is the race element,” Harry said. That bias has deep roots in the history of the British empire, which was enriched by the enslavement of Black people and the extraction of wealth from colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, said historian and author David Olusoga in the program. It is only since World War II that large numbers of Black and Asian people moved to Britain, changing the face of the nation. Those changes aren’t reflected in the British media. While Black people make up about 3.5% of Britain’s population, they account for just 0.2% of the journalists, Olusoga said. “We have to recognize that this is a white industry…,” he said. “So people who come up with these headlines, they are doing so in a newsroom that’s almost entirely white, and they get to decide whether something has crossed the line of being racist.” King Charles III was asked if he had watched the series as he carried out an engagement on Thursday in London. He did not reply. Race became a central issue for the monarchy following Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021. Meghan alleged that before their first child was born, a member of the royal family commented on how dark the baby’s skin might be. Prince William, the heir to the throne and Harry’s older brother, defended the royal family after the interview, telling reporters, “We’re very much not a racist family.” But Buckingham Palace faced renewed allegations of racism only last week when a Black advocate for survivors of domestic abuse said a senior member of the royal household interrogated her about her origins during a reception at the palace. Coverage of the issue filled British media, overshadowing William and his wife Kate’s much-anticipated visit to Boston, which the palace had hoped would highlight their environmental credentials.

The Prince and Princess of Wales on Thursday heard about solar-powered autonomous boats and low-carbon cement at a green technology startup incubator in suburban Boston before learning how a nonprofit gives young people the tools to stay out jail and away from violence. William and Kate, making their first overseas visit since the death of Queen Elizabeth II, also found time for hundreds of cheering onlookers at each stop on the second of three days in the city. The royal couple spent 10 minutes with the crowd at one stop, chatting, taking selfies and receiving lots of flower bouquets. Some fans held up signs “Welcome to Boston, Your Highnesses” and “Welcome to Chelsea, the Future King and Queen of England.” “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” declared Loren Simao, who said she’s watched William grow up over several decades. “They are just wonderful people, and we need more of them in the world.” The visit started Wednesday with a reception at Boston City Hall and a trip to a Boston Celtics basketball game. It culminates Friday with the awarding of the prince’s signature Earthshot Prize, a global competition aimed at finding new ways to protect the planet and tackle climate change. The trip also comes amid uproar back home over an 83-year-old honorary member of the royal household who reportedly asked the Black chief executive of an east London women’s refuge where she “really came from” after she told the older woman that she was British. Some said the incident was an example of wider issues of racism at Buckingham Palace. On Thursday, William and Kate stopped by Roca Inc., a nonprofit north of Boston that strives to halt the cycle of incarceration, poverty, unemployment, substance abuse, pregnancy and racism faced by young men and women ages 16 to 24. Roca CEO Dr. Molly Baldwin and Chelsea police Capt. Dave Batchelor explained the science and cognitive behavioral therapy used by the nonprofit. Read more: When Bollywood actor Padmini Kolhapure kissed King Charles During the visit, the royal couple met with two young men involved in the program. “Well I hope you give yourself a pat on the back as well, you got yourself here,” the prince told Jonathan Williams. “These guys have provided you with the support and the outside bit, but you’ve done it yourself.” The couple also talked to some participants in Roca’s program for young mothers. The royals, who have three children, even showed off their parenting skills while interacting with some of the kids, at one point helping a little girl look for her mother. Before heading to Roca, the couple went to Greentown Labs in Somerville, where they were greeted by CEO Emily Reichert, Mayor Katjana Ballantyne as well as Joe Curtatone, the former mayor of the city just north of Boston who is now the president of the Northeast Clean Energy Council. Since its 2011 founding, Greentown, the largest climate technology startup incubator in North America, has supported more than 500 companies that have created more than 9,000 jobs. While at Greentown, the royal couple chatted to Shara Ticku, CEO of c16 Biosciences, a company developing decarbonized alternatives for the consumer products supply chain, starting with a sustainable alternative to palm oil. “Oils today come from animals or plants,” Ticku said. “We made this from fungi.” At Open Ocean Robotics, CEO and cofounder Julie Angus told the prince and princess about their solar-powered autonomous boats, which provide real-time information about the oceans. Angus had a computer and monitor on her table, showing data of a real boat out in the harbor in Victoria, British Columbia, where the company is based. “Five knots? That’s quite quick,” the prince said, looking at the screen. “It’s amazing it hasn’t capsized,” he added. Angus noted that the boats are able to self-right. William and Kate also chatted with Katherine Dafforn, co-founder of Living Seawalls, an Australian company that designs environmentally friendly ocean infrastructure. “For all of us, time is ticking,” William said. Upon their departure from Greentown Labs, Kate received flowers from 8-year-old Henry Dynov-Teixeira, who was wearing a King’s Guard costume. Thursday’s agenda also included a visit to the Boston waterfront, where the royal couple braved brisk conditions to learn about efforts to prepare the Boston Harbor community for rising seas and other impacts of climate change. Read more: Not just any cake: A Bollywood homage to queen for Jubilee As they left, Prince William talked with several park workers who asked if they had enjoyed the Boston Celtics game they attended Wednesday night. Prince William said Kate had asked if he wanted to shoot some hoops. “Ten feet up? It’s been a long time since I’ve done that,” he laughed, adding, “We might come back when it’s a bit warmer. It’s beautiful along the waterfront.” The royal couple’s first trip to the U.S. since 2014 is part of the British royal family’s efforts to change their international image. In the wake of Elizabeth’s death, King Charles III, William’s father, has made clear that his will be a slimmed-down monarchy, with less pomp and ceremony than its predecessors. That includes a focus on the Earthshot Prize, which offers 1 million pounds ($1.2 million) in prize money to each of the winners of five separate categories: nature protection, clean air, ocean revival, waste elimination and climate change. The winners and all 15 finalists also receive help in expanding their projects to meet global demand. The winners are scheduled to be announced Friday at Boston’s MGM Music Hall as part of a glitzy show headlined by Billie Eilish, Annie Lennox, Ellie Goulding and Chloe x Halle. The show will also feature videos narrated by naturalist David Attenborough and actor Cate Blanchett.

It was a kiss that hogged media limelight in India and Britain in the early 1980s when social media was a distant dream. Bollywood actor Padmini Kolhapure posted the kiss on the cheek of King Charles, then a Prince and heir to the British throne, after garlanding him as the latter visited the sets of her 1981 film 'Ahista Ahista' in Mumbai. Read: After a lifetime of preparation, Charles takes the throne The kiss not only became the talk of the town in India and also made the Bollywood actor famous in Britain as the "woman who kissed Prince Charles". "It was just a peck on the cheek...the media took it somewhere else. It was no big deal," Kolhapure had later said in an interview with a local media outlet. Kolhapure began acting as a child artiste in 1972 at the age of 7. In 1976 and 1977, she acted in two hit flicks -- 'Zindagi' and 'Dream Girl', respectively. But she hogged limelight for her role in 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram'. Read: At age 73, Charles becomes King She became a sensation when iconic filmmaker Raj Kapoor cast her as the lead heroine in 'Prem Rog' in 1982 opposite his son Rishi Kapoor. Kolhapure went on to give box office hits with her performances in 'Vidhaata' (1982), 'Souten' (1983) and 'Pyar Jhukta Nahin' (1985). She later forayed into the regional Marathi films.

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has made her first speech in Britain since she and Prince Harry quit as working royals two years ago. Delivering a keynote speech to the One Young World summit on Monday, Meghan spoke of her self-doubt as “the girl from Suits” when she attended the same youth event in 2014 alongside world leaders and humanitarian activists. The duchess, formerly known as Meghan Markle, was best known for her acting role in the TV drama “Suits” before she married Harry. Also read: Meghan pays respect to Texas school shooting victims “I was allowed in, to pull up a seat at the table," Meghan told about 2,000 young people gathered in Manchester, England. “I was so overwhelmed by this experience, I think I even saved my little paper place-marker with my name on it." “Just proof — proof that I was there, proof that I belonged, because the truth was, I wasn’t sure that I belonged," she said. Meghan and Harry stepped down as senior royals and moved to the U.S. in 2020. They were in the U.K. for the first time since Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee in June, when the couple appeared briefly at a thanksgiving service. Also read: Meghan and Harry welcome second child, Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana They travelled to the Manchester event by train from London. Their next stop is Germany, where they will attend an event Tuesday counting down to the Invictus Games 2023, before returning to London where Harry will deliver a speech at a charity ceremony on Thursday.

When Ajay Chhabra was asked to design a pageant performance to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, he knew what would make the perfect centerpiece: cake. Not just any cake, but Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s 1947 wedding cake. The four-tier, nine-foot (2.7-meter) confection was dubbed “the 10,000-mile cake” at the time because it was whipped up with sugar, dried fruit, rum and brandy from all corners of the Commonwealth, from South Africa to the Caribbean to Australia and the South Pacific. Chhabra, a second-generation British Indian with Fijian heritage, wanted to use his segment of Sunday’s Jubilee pageant to highlight how the queen, through her historic 70 years on the throne, united generations of Commonwealth citizens from places as far flung as Fiji. “We’re not recreating the 1947 wedding of the queen, but creating a sort of homage to it, with all the people and all the diversity that Britain has produced,” he said. Also read: Queen Elizabeth II’s extraordinary life and reign On Sunday, more than 200 performers in vibrant saris will dance to Bollywood tunes around a moving, six-meter-tall (20-foot-tall) version of the queen’s wedding cake, powered by a hidden electric vehicle. Its top tier, featuring a rendition of the queen’s beloved corgis holding aloft a crown, pops up and down on a hydraulic system. The dancers, who range in age from 9 to 79, all have Commonwealth heritage. “All those young people ... they don't see the world or ‘being British’ the way we did, or our parents did,” Chhabra said. His Bollywood-themed wedding party is just one of many colorful acts to parade down the Mall to Buckingham Palace in London on Sunday, the finale of a busy four-day weekend of festivities marking the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee. More than 10,000 people from across the U.K. and the Commonwealth have been involved in producing the pageant, which is expected to be seen by 1 billion people around the world. A military showcase opens the spectacle, followed by a procession featuring a medley of carnival music, three-story-high beasts, Scottish bagpipers, stunt cyclists, maypole dancers and dozens of animal puppets — all telling the story of the queen's reign in their own ways. Also read: Queen’s birthday celebrated in city pledging to boost girls’ life chances The pageant will travel a three-kilometer (nearly two-mile) route and end in front of Buckingham Palace, where crowds will sing “God Save the Queen.” Singers Ed Sheeran, Shirley Bassey and Cliff Richard will be among the celebrities paying tribute. It’s a huge celebratory moment, and the pageant’s directors aren't keen to discuss the more controversial aspects of Britain’s legacy in many Commonwealth countries. In the Caribbean, in particular, the Commonwealth has increasingly been characterized by fragmentation, not unity. Prince William and his wife, Kate, were greeted with anti-slavery protests in March during a royal tour of the Caribbean, and Jamaica’s prime minister bluntly told the couple the country intended to “move on” and remove the queen as head of state, following Barbados’ move last year. Pageant organizers emphasize that the event is a “people’s pageant,” focusing on how ordinary people are connected “through time, to each other, and to the queen.” It's a connection that Chhabra feels keenly in his own family. He says the queen is a symbol of continuity that unites his mother’s generation with that of his young daughter, regardless of the time and distance separating the two. “When I look at my mum’s foundation story, she was 9 years old when the queen came to Fiji during her tour of the South Pacific in 1953. You know, her and all of her school friends were waving flags to welcome her," he said. "That’s an exciting story that she brought with her from Fiji to London in the 1960s.” His 9-year-old daughter will take part in Sunday’s pageant — an event that will become her story to tell future generations. “In a world where things are very temporary and polarized, I think there are few things that bring us together," Chhabra said.